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Wednesday, 24 March 2010

The Story of a Picture by Ian Jack

And speaking of photographing types, a splendid article by Ian Jack from the Spring 2010 issue of Intelligent Life magazine has found its way online. It starts out, "Almost since its invention, photography has had the habit of turning
people into symbols by accident...."

The article, which tells in detail the story of one of those often-reproduced, widely known iconic images (although this one is mainly known in the U.K.—I'd never seen it before yesterday) is called "Five Boys: The Story of a Picture."

The longer original version (7,000 words), is at The Economist's moreintelligentlife.com. Lots of people are talking about a condensed version (2,900 words) which appeared in The Guardian yesterday. The condensed version might still be too long for you if you're that pressed for time; I recommend the longer version. Both are good reads.

The fates of the two "toff" boys on the left are particularly poignant. Stereotypes or not, there's no telling from the present what life has in store.

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Featured Comment by Peter: "That's a remarkable image, and the linked stories too are fascinating. I'm reminded of related photographs which I was fortunate to see more than thirty years ago, not long after Queen Elizabeth visited an Oxford college.

"I was a student at Oxford at the time, and I had been told that every monarch since Henry VIII had visited the college during their reign. On this occasion it was the turn of Elizabeth II, and of course the college hired professional photographers to record the occasion for posterity. They were briefed on the need to do their job particularly quickly and effectively; the royal party would be present for only a short time, and there would be no opportunities for retaking images.

"One of the photographers took special pains to plan for the occasion, and sought out members of the college staff who could stand in for the royal party in a trial image, so that lighting, exposure, and of course composition, could be determined in advance and refined. The college staff had to be of approximately the same height and build as the people whom they would represent.

"My memory of the trial image is not as clear as I would like it to be, but I recall that a charwoman, with her hair in a scarf and a mop in her hand, stood where the queen would be; a tall member of staff (perhaps a scout, one of the retired gentlemen who looked after undergraduates in the rooms that go off a staircase) represented the Duke of Edinburgh; and so on. The final photograph, taken a few days later, showed the royal retinue standing just where the staff had been.

"I was fortunate to be able to see both images side by side, shortly after the event. Their juxtaposition had a special story to relate, one that was significantly more moving, and more historically relevant, than the story told by the royal picture alone."

Comments

The picture may not LITERALLY be a true depiction of class divide, but it does illustrate, nevertheless, an elemental truth about the class divide in Britain at that time.

I know something about this, as my mother grew up in Britain during that time, and as a member of "the working class," suffered from the disadvantages of that class divide...She had to start working at 14, given the way the English school system worked at that time...and was always ashamed of her lack of a higher education...

To steal a line, more or less, from Neal Kinnock:I was the first in a thousand generation of my mother's family to make it to a university....and I did it here.

So while there may be much to gripe and complain about in America today, I am very glad that this country never adopted the English class system, and that it's individual merit that counts here, not your accent, your bloodline, or your title....

Although we in the U.S. may not have the English class system we are moving toward ever more inequality in what really matters - wealth. Today the top ten percent of the population possess 80% of the financial wealth of our country. Starting with the Reagan tax cuts for the super rich inequality has continued to grow so that we are headed toward a society like that in the following picture.

The long version is definitely worth reading. As someone from a country with a far less defined class system (Netherlands) it strikes me how the three working class men, each in their own way, take the suggestion that they're toughs very seriously and, either by action or by word, deny that they're that. In other words the perceived divide between lower class (toughs) and lower middle class might be just as big as the one between upper and middle class.

It's significant that, of the 5 boys in the picture, the two who supposedly had an advantage over the others were less successful, in terms of happiness, long life, size of family/descendants, or wealth. Certainly there was no less stress on them, even if it was a different stress. Maybe the one message from all of this is that life isn't fair, at many levels.

The key is whether you have upward mobility so that poor student of potential can do well (and has the aspiration and encouragement to do that). It seemed from my wife (who is a Brits) family, it is obviously UK has been much improved in this aspects. There is still, of course, difference for the school Prince William go to (Eton still) and your average Brits go to.

Going back to the photos, I noted they use tripod (in the long essay it mentioned it). It is not very Leica like then in 1930s. I thought they use 6x9 and do they use 4x5? Photojournalism is very different then.

Standing up (for once) for my fellow Btits, it's easy to overstate the contemporary class-divide. Economically, the gap between rich and poor is a disgrace(in the 1970s, the average executive earned c.10 times the salary of shop-floor staff; now, it's 100 times. Are execs 10 times better now than then? I don't think so). But I understand that it's the same in the US (and Ivy-Leaguers benefit just as much from where they went to 'school' as our own top-flight types). In contrast, self-conscious differentiation on social grounds is an increasingly quaint phenomenon here, like smoking. Some people do it, but quietly, as if ashamed to be caught. Thankfully, I - a 'working-class' boy - got a good, free education, went to university, did the BA, Masters and PhD, and have never experienced class-fed prejudice. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist; just that it's far less observable than in 1937.

The advances are harder to spot from elsewhere, because, of course, journalists look for the story (and, let's face it, Brits often play to it - we like to be thought of as Leslie Howard types, especially by Americans). But every race suffers from the enduring misconceptions of others. Right now, we in the UK are being entertained by the right to bear arms openly issue in the US, with the marvellous shot (sic) of the rather large gun-toting couple pushing their groceries around a suburban supermarket. But I suspect that this isn't at all an accurate depiction of The Way You Live Now.

It's a small world - I photographed Ian Jack just the other day, at an informal talk he gave at Newcastle University. The British class divide features heavily in much of his writing and was a feature of the talk too. Interesting writer and speaker.

I once sent that photograph to a friend of mine to rib him about his middle class upbringing. I took the liberty of placing a speech bubble over the middle boy on the right of the frame that was meant to be saying to first of the two boys, "Graham... it's me, Sean... Don't you recognise me, Graham?"

It is a great photograph and the story only makes it more so. But the class system is very much still alive it's in our DNA. I have had first hand experience of class prejudice on numerous occasions. Such prejudices can be seen on most days in papers like the Daily Mail. "Chav scum" "Benefit scroungers", Single mums, you name it. As a result of these experiences I have a prejudice of my own that's built over the years.

I didn't grow up with anybody that went on to university. Simple fact is that young people from working class areas are massively underrepresented in universities and always have been. Where you get a good free education is a bit of a lottery, if you're from a sink estate you've got a fight on your hands. Thatcher once said that "There's no such thing as society". For me, conservatives have a Darwinian idea of improving the quality of life. It's survival of the fittest. The idea that wealth trickles down also makes my teeth grind. It's not wealth that trickles down...

Victorian middle and upper classes believed that the poor being poor was gods will

From one of Britain's most loved hymns 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' (Original version)

The rich man in his castle;
the poor man at his gate
God made them, high and lowly;
and ordered their estate.

I passed the Houses Of Parliament with my wife last year and quoted James Russell Lowell

Have ye founded your thrones and altars, then,
On the bodies and souls of living men?
And think ye that building shall endure,
Which shelters the noble and crushes the poor?

One of those that goes to truth in photography. Photographers intentions may or may not have been distinctly honest in that sense, but the interpretation has drifted. I'm sure there were some equally horrified at the misinterpretation of Harrovians (but of course Eton is a much better marker for privilege).

As to the merits of class distinction: we are but beasts of the field: naturally tribal and hierarchical. Doesn't matter how much civilised morals may dislike it, it's in our nature.

Incidentally, the place Tim Dyson's father was posted and where Tim unfortunately passed away (Trimulgherry, Secunderabad) is where I've lived most of my life (and from where I'm typing out this comment.) What a small world indeed.

I'd be interested to know if Arjun would like to help with a little more of my research and try to discover Tim Dyson's grave in Trimulgherry. I suspect he may be buried in the cantonment cemetery, though that's just a hunch on my part.